The Shieldmaiden and the King
by TheThreeVirgins
Summary: EXPERIMENTAL FIC: Who actually loved only a shadow and a thought? Aragorn and Eowyn in their lives post War of the Ring, memories, desires, confessions. King Elessar and the White Lady in their battles, in the fields and in bed. I own nothing, Tolkien do.


**_I'M EXPERIMENTING._**

**_After 15 years of love and passion, for the first time I write about my LOTR's favorite caracter: Éowyn._**

**_I own nothing but my words, this universe belongs to Tolkien and his heirs._**

**_I'll update it, but depends of you._**

**_English is not my language, so… please forgive any mistake and give me the correct expression and I'll put it here. I have no beta reader._**

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**The Shieldmaiden and the King**

**Cap. 1**

Sitting on a stone bench in the garden, Aragorn thought about the day. He never felt such a bitter taste in the words he had had to say, for everyone's joy.

A mix of good and bad feelings reached him when he remembered the young warrior that so brave had declared her love for him.

She was marrying a man so noble and wise that could be a Great King to Gondor, as good as himself. Looking at the couple smiling to each other and the people who attended the ceremony, Aragorn felt like he was a stranger in his own home.

_"She's a Queen even without a title or crown."_

He remembered the very last conversation with her before the wedding…

All friends were celebrating joyfully in Meduseld, but she excused herself and went to the front of the tomb from her beloved king and uncle.

The moonlight transformed her in a ray of light in the middle of the white flowers. He did not remember seeing such a fair lady, nor even Galadriel and Arwen seemed to magical and divine as Éowyn.

But she was just a mortal woman, trembling under the sobs of a mourning so grievous.

"Éowyn?" he said, touching her shoulders. When she saw him, she stepped away. The old habit of reacting and defending herself.

Then she tried to wipe her tears, but Aragorn walked and put her golden hair away from her pale face, wiping the tears with his own thumbs. She looked like the same maiden in despair that had implored him to ride with the Grey Company to the Paths of the dead.

"I will not ask you to not weep for him that was most than a father to you. I only ask you to not despair, not tonight. This night is yours."

"I should be inside this grave, not him, lord. Not him. If I had…" she said suddenly, but she saw deception in his eyes and tried to amend. "I always think about it, but it's not every day."

"You do not know how to lie to me, Éowyn."

That was truth. She used to hide, but knew that he understood what she said as being from others, when she was the owner of the words.

Disentangling from his arms gently, she headed to up the hill, but he grabbed her arm and said:

"We need to talk."

All his words used to be heavy as the ages of the world, but these two almost pushed her into the ground.

Taking a deep breath and mustering all her strength, she turned to him:

"I hear you, my lord."

"No formalities. I'm just the man I've always been, to your eyes."

"_No, you're not_." she thought, but decided not to say anything.

"Éowyn ..." he said, but had no courage to begin.

Seeing a man always so secure and brave to fight and mince his words, she decided that if that would be the last conversation between them, who would speak was her heart, without half words, metaphors or fears. She had nothing to lose anymore.

"If you came to ask me if I still love a shadow and a thought, listen what I say Aragorn: I never loved a shadow, much less a thought! You have always been very real to me. You was the one who loved the shadow of your elf maiden, waiting for decades, lying on a bed and submissive to her own fears and her father. She was with you just in thought and what a thought is compared to reality? A dream and nothing more."

He swallowed, eyes glittering with fright as she continued, obstinate:

"I loved you in my own way and did my best to support you here in Rohan. I do not admit you to believe the stories that I was interested in what you would be after war. If I wanted so desperately to be Queen, I would have been careless my uncle when he fell into disgrace and spell and wouldn't have supported my brother nor my cousin, the son of Théoden King. When I saw you, I saw the man, not the throne of Gondor. I saw my freedom, I really thought you could take me from here and let me ride and fight at your side. Fight for me, for you, for our peoples. But you denied me everything and tried all the ways to convince me to stay away from war.

"Éowyn!" he waved his arms and closed the distance between them, but she pushed him away and said dryly:

"I have not finished."

Aragorn had never seen her like that. He tried to realize how complex was the Lady of Rohan.

"After you left me at Dunharrow and went to the Paths of the Dead, there was anything to do besides cry for me and for your destiny on that road. But then I thought about it and pondered your words. You, like the others, wanted to keep me in the house ...

"I was just trying to protect you."

"Keeping me away from my dreams of battles and glories? I wasn't born to stay home while everyone fights. I was born to defend myself and defend those I love. I am of the House of Eorl!"

"I know."

"Do you know? And why you didn't let me go with you? I begged not only for your love that day, I begged for the chance to have some usefulness in this War!" she finally showed him all her bitterness and anger."

"Your uncle and brother would never allow... and I couldn't even think of anything happening to you in battle and under my responsibility! I knew if someone attacked me, you would protect me with your life as you did with your uncle."

"I am a shieldmaiden!"

"I know" he sighed. "Éowyn, please understand: I saw despair in your eyes and it frightened me. There was no fear so great as what I felt to imagine what you would do. Deep inside, I knew you would ride anyway to the Pelennor Fields."

She looked at him in disbelief.

"Then you are a coward!" she exploded and his body stiffened. Nobody ever had called him a coward.

His eyes were trapped into hers for minutes that seemed hours. She knew she had gone too far, but there was no word better to describe his actions about her going to battle. When the tension seemed almost to burn down the vegetation around them, he said…

**_To be continued?_**


End file.
